[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by Cipher7

Spoiler for Second Barrage Ep 24 ending:

What's up with the girl (the head of Washimine group) and Gin San fighting revy and killing themselves? I don't understand the ending at all, why did they just get in a car and basically run off to die? I thought they were gonna rebuild their group or something. I play backed a couple of time, but there is no explanation.

Also, if anyone happens to know, what was Hotel Moscow doing in Japan in the first place? From what I understand, it's because a certain croup in japan wanted to gain power and asked for their help, but i'm not sure.

I posted my opinion in Otakuism nearly five months ago.

Spoiler for yakuza politics:

From what little I could understand, the Washimine Group has fallen on hard times since the death of its leader, Yukio’s father. The Kousa “Peacekeeping” Council wished to install a puppet leader to take over control. To prevent that from happening, Tsugio Bando, the acting deputy at the time, brought in Hotel Moscow to apply a “little bit of pressure” on the Kousa Council in order to negotiate more favourable terms. Unfortunately, Tsugio chose the wrong mafia to work with, as he had not expected Balaika’s team to be so ruthlessly efficient at “intimidation”. Realising that Balaika had become their problem to solve, the Washimine Group retaliates against its former “hound”, and got torn to pieces instead.

With Tsugio dead, and the surviving remnants of the Group in tatters, Yukio realised that she had to take up her destined role as her father’s daughter. It was the “honorable” thing to do. But the important thing to note is that she made a conscious change to step into the dark — she cast her own dice, and was not “forced” into it per se. She could have turned away instead, as Ginji wanted her to do, but she chose to stay.

At this point, the plot becomes a bit murkier, as it seems that Hotel Moscow had been out to double-cross the Washimine Group all along, given that Balaika was in negotiations with the Kousa Council. Or maybe that was merely the impression that she wanted the Council to have, given how they had been persecuting the Washimine Group over the past several days. In the end, Balaika executed the Council boss, as per her original orders, I think.

Which meant that Yukio and Ginji actually had no reason to fight Balaika in the end (Hotel Moscow had fulfilled its mission and was longer out to destroy the Washimine), but they still persisted out of the need to avenge Tsugio Bando’s death (yakuza honour). Hence the tragedy of Yukio’s needless suicide.